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What is the future of the call center industry over the next five years? Here are some predictions: 1. Real-time Internet-based feedback techniques will become popular, enabling customers to rate agents from Web sites with click-to-call capabilities. 2. Transnational quality assurance practices will...

The planning and preliminary implementation processes for shifting IT-enabled work to offshore locations are similar for back office work, customer service operations and knowledge process outsourcing, or KPO. Here we map out the process of offshoring in a manner that allows firms to choose between ...

Cost increases are squeezing margins for outsourcing companies providing software and call center services to U.S. customers from popular international destinations. No immediate price increases for U.S. customers are possible for suppliers that are locked into fixed-term contracts in U.S. dollars,...

Direct search, or direct navigation, occurs when a potential customer guesses a domain name and types it into his or her browser address bar. The domain name often corresponds to the type of product or service being sought. Direct search is responsible for less than 20 percent of the online connecti...

The most common and least understood marketing barrier facing outsourcing service providers is the absence of a strong brand. Most brands associated with IT and IT-enabled services companies are chosen on the basis of criteria relevant to where outsourcing firms are based, rather than where they int...

Outsourcing and the establishment of captive customer service operations offshore depend on labor markets to supply qualified talent at affordable rates. Without appropriate personnel, nothing is possible. The globalization of information technology and IT-enabled services is leading to the global...

In considering whether or how to reorganize customer service and back-office functions offshore, the option to open a captive subsidiary service center may not receive full consideration in comparison to outsourcing options. Here we look at the case for Western companies to establish their own dedi...

One of the most advanced communication hubs in the world crashed unexpectedly in Seattle on Sunday afternoon, July 30, 2006, due to a string of malfunctions in the facility's electrical power system. The facility, called Fisher Plaza, is billed as one of the most secure data centers and telecommuni...

In buying a U.S. company, liabilities do not cease once a seller has completed a deal. The allocation of liabilities is usually determined in the acquisition agreement. Acquisition agreements are described in the previous article in this series. The role of indemnifications in mergers and acquisi...

Apple Computer announced internally on May 29 that it is pulling back from plans to establish a customer support facility in Bangalore, India. The news regarding Apple's Indian subsidiary Apple Services India was released publicly on Saturday. Apple has not announced plans to downscale its outsourc...

Acquisition agreements are the most important legally binding documents in the acquisition process, but their role is frequently misunderstood. They structure the deal and allocate liabilities and responsibilities among buyers and sellers. The commercial terms of an acquisition agreement are usuall...

Buying a U.S. company offers a quick and easy way to acquire a client base without having to build one up slowly through traditional sales and marketing efforts, efforts that can be expensive, time consuming and not always successful. As described in part one of this series, acquisitions can provi...

U.S. companies that have not globalized their production or service operations are prime acquisition candidates for Western and overseas investors. Following an acquisition, the new owners can gradually shift some or all of an acquired firm's work offshore to competitive locations, making the entir...

Acquisition of existing enterprises offers the quickest, safest route to entering new markets and expanding rapidly within existing markets. The alternative route is organic growth through traditional sales and marketing efforts. We begin here by recognizing the limits of conventional sales and mar...

The trend of Americans and Canadians buying call centers in India is driven by the low cost of these facilities and by the speed with which buyers can begin using them. The first article in this series focuses on the advantages of buying a facility with less than 100 seats in Bangalore, primarily ...

Indian call centers are being purchased by U.S. and Canadian companies seeking to quickly gain access to call center services offshore, particularly outbound services. Although media attention focuses more on the sale of U.S. assets to Asian and Middle Eastern firms, this trend in the other directi...

Service has been restored on a damaged telecommunications cable that links India and Pakistan to the West, but not before the international service outage caused widespread financial damage, most especially to the cell center industry. Service on the cable was restored on Friday. The cable was damag...

Damage to the undersea telecommunications cable SEA-ME-WE3 (SMW3) Monday initially disrupted most of Pakistan's international telephone and Internet connections, but the outage spread to India, the United Arab Emirates, Oman and Djibouti as repairs were started yesterday. Call centers in India using...

A fire at a telecommunications hub in Chennai, India, crippled call centers across the country yesterday, and voice and data service interruptions continued this morning. Cell phone customers of Tamil Nadu were also impacted by the fire at a Bharti Tele-Ventures Limited telecommunications facility i...